Exterior Door Handle Issue

[65 Cobra Dude]

Has anyone figured out a way to make the exterior door handle return to center? I was thinking some type of spring but when the window is down, no place to hook a spring. If you open the door via the exterior handle, it will stay unlatched. I'm concerned my customer or his kid may forget to manually bring the exterior handle back to center and with this could be catastrophic with the suicide doors.

Thx,

Henry

[JimLev]

I haven't installed them yet, might leave them off the car.
The bag has some big springs in it, woudn't they return the handle to the horizontal position?

[Brave Salmon]

NO, they don't naturally return to center unless you design some form of bracket that does it for you. I found that the keys will not go into the lock unless the handles are level. Sure, the springs keep them close but the stock FFR design just plain sucks. Find someone who has had the installed per instructions and ask them to lift up on the handle instead of turning it down. Lifting up will knock the return spring off the perch and you'll go round and round and round. I made up a set of brackets using scrap stuff from the garage to make mine work but had to remove them because they hit the stupid window track and kept it from lining up. My honest opinion is that the door handles with the power windows is a major cluster@#*. Hopefully someone smarter that me will be able to offer a resolution so good luck. I finally gave up on the handles and went with door pull solenoids and a trunk mounted manual release.

[65 Cobra Dude]

Jim, can you post a pic of the rotary spring? I don’t have one in the bag.

Thx,

Henry

[JimLev]

Here ya go Henry.
I believe the p/n on the bag is 33603.

Did you get actual inside door handles with your kit?
All I got was the 2" long chrome rods that bolt to the bear claw door latch.

124929

[65 Cobra Dude]

Thanks Jim,

I’ll look for the springs but they don’t look familiar. My customer ordered the brushed aluminum inside handles which are pretty nice but need to be assembled with a smaller version of the springs you show above.

[sread]

I did it like this - see post #7

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?34865-build-thread-for-Hot-Rod-442

[Arrowhead]

I did it like this - see post #7

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?34865-build-thread-for-Hot-Rod-442

Yes, I did something similar (it's all a blur now) I think I added a dab of weld to the metal bracket to function as a stop for the split pin that hold the handle together.

Henry - those are the springs I had gotten as well.

[Blade]

I just asked the same question. The answer lies in the 2nd generation build manual. I followed the steps and they came out great. https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?33075-Blade-s-33-build&p=406296&viewfull=1#post406296